Cole MacGrath
"With time, I'm learning to control it. Master it. Just hope it's not too late." Cole MacGrath is the protagonist of InFamous, an ordinary man given extraordinary abilities, and the power to choose what to do with them. Before The Blast Before the game began, Cole was an ordinary bicycle messenger, delivering packages from one spot to another in Empire City. The two most important people in his life are his girlfriend, Trish Dailey, and his best friend Zeke Dunbar. As a hobby, Cole practices urban exploration, parkour and probably buildering, becoming comfortable climbing on all manner of surfaces, and mapping out large segments of the underground sewer system. According to the developers, Cole is also a college graduate. The Blast On the day that InFamous begins, Cole is told to deliver a package from an unknown customer, but when he arrives, he gets a phone call telling him to open it, revealing a spherical device. It activates, causing a massive explosion that wipes out six city blocks, killing hundreds of people instantly, including Trish's sister Amy. Cole, the only survivor of the immediate explosion, wakes up in the epicenter of the explosion, and runs to safety, although he falls into a coma from the strain of the strange new electrical abilities he has gained. Post-Blast Empire City is put under quarantine, and without outside help, chaos quickly descends on the city. Cole awakens after about four days and gradually learns to control his electrical powers. Approximately 2 weeks after the quarantine was put in effect, Cole's powers have developed to the point where he can fire powerful electrical blasts and generate potent shock waves. As he regroups with Zeke, he discovers that a rogue television DJ, "The Voice of Survival", has identified him as the cause of the explosion, turning the city populace, including Trish, who blames Cole for Amy's death, against him. Cole and Zeke attempt to make it past the quarantine using Cole's new superpowers, but they are overwhelmed by military units and almost killed. Zeke escapes, but Cole is caught by an FBI agent named Moya Jones, who urges Cole to return to Empire City to help recover the Ray Sphere, the device that triggered the explosion, as well as her supposed husband and fellow agent John White, in exchange for breaking him, Zeke, and Trish from quarantine. Powers Cole is a powerful electrokinetic that can draw and control huge amounts of electricity throughout his body and store it there. This has several beneficial effects, besides electrical manipulation, the electricity running throughout his body greatly accelerates the body's natural ability to repair damage by stimulating the muscle tissue and his immune system making Cole impervious to most disease except for the most powerful ones eg.mind control and the extremely toxic gases that Kessler's air balloon had realased, this also allows for his muscles to absorb huge amounts of physical trauma to a far greater degree than normal humans, granting the ability to survive falls from extreme heights with no harm to his body. Cole also has enhanced physical strength, agility, durability, and reflexes. He has not fully adapted to his powers as of yet, as he only just gained them. As he begins to gain control of his powers he can only create a stream of electrical discharge through his palms in the form of Lightning Bolts, and absorb electricity from nearby sources, but soon discovers various other abilities, such as the Thunder Drop; charging up large amounts of electrical energy within his body while falling and dispersing it in a powerful shockwave on contact with the ground, creating spheres of electrical energy that can be used as projectiles and rapidly disperse in a concussive force equivalent to that of grenades or missiles, the ability to either drain bio-electrical energy from living beings or send his own bio-electrical energy into someone else to heal them, accelerating the body's natural healing processes temporarily; the ability to, if in contact with a person's head, read the electrical currents of the brain and see their memories, even in the recently deceased. The ability to create electrokinetic forcefields capable of blocking rapidly moving projectiles, and even manipulate electrical currents within the air to create powerful streams of lightning to fall from the sky which he can fully control. But if Kessler, a fully developed electrokinetic, is any indication, his powers are still immature despite being so powerful already, and can still develop and master many powers which (if the ending cutscene is any indication) includes an advanced form of Static Thrusters which allowed Cole in an alternate timeline to propell himself and his family at considerable speed, limited illusion generation and either teleportation, super speed or an energy form. Appearance and mental state His powers also seem to change drastically depending on his mental state, represented by the Karma system and his various Good and Evil upgrades. General No matter which path Cole takes, he will always wear a yellow and grey tracksuit (though the colours become washed-out should Cole take the Evil path), and a messenger bag with his phone attached to the single strap. His head is closely shaven and he has a gravelly voice. Though game-wise, it is for the player's benefit, Cole is very intelligent and is able to logically deduce the outcomes of any actions he might take. The electricity Cole produces changes colour depending on his disposition, though remains at a consistent strength regardless of his decisions. Good The color of his attacks at Good karma are a bluish white not unlike most depictions of eletricity. At Hero rank, Cole is trying to protect the civilians of Empire City, and as such, he is much more accurate at shooting his lightning, and other projectiles which have been shown to be much less destructive, but much stronger on individual targets than Evil karma abilities. With the above mentioned many people think that his abilities are tuned towards the defensive side. Some of his powers, such as Shock Grenades, will focus more on living captures. Because of this civilians will cheer and take pictures when you walk by, as well as even help you fight the Gangs, usually throwing rocks at them. His clothes stay yellow-ish white and blue (may seem cleaner) and Cole will still have his usual face. Cole's mental state throughout the game as Good develops positively: When the good actions he does makes him a champion of the people, his focus is turned towards making order in Empire City, even as much as getting out of there and finding out what happened during and before The Blast. In the Good ending, Cole has become a symbol of hope to the people of Empire City. He is unsure about his thoughts of Zeke. The Crime Level is dropping greatly. He is currently helping in the rebuilding of the city. Evil His powers at Evil karma are colored blood red, and later become black with a red outline if at the end of the game the player activates the Ray Sphere. Regardless of Cole's previous Karmic state, this action is so unforgivably evil that the player's rank is instantly shifted to and locked at Infamous. (though transitioning to the rank via this method does not unlock the corresponding Trophy. At the Infamous rank, Cole has no empathy for the inhabitants of Empire City, and thus, his abilities are much less focused and more destructive than the Good variants due to the lack of required precision necessary to their counterparts, but seems to do less damage when focusing on a individual. Unfortunately for any innocent bystanders, this also causes a huge amount of collateral damage on the side and civilians are often killed by the stray grenade lob. Cole also begins to change in appearance, indicating that his powers are "corrupting him": His skin will turn pale, and for every rank, black, vein-like markings that resemble electric currents will grow larger on the neck and back of his head. This is possibly a result of the immense amounts of power surging through him, and thus, the altered appearance may be a result of the energy disrupting several body functions. If the player returns to Good Karma, these markings recede and fade. Cole's ego is also altered: While his main focus is getting out of the city at the start of the game, his thoughts turn towards both getting more power and punishing those who did him wrong. In the Evil ending, Cole has become a tyrant and has destroyed Empire City even further. The crime is steadily rising. Cole believes that control belongs to the strongest, and no one is stronger than him. Side Effects and Weaknesses There are several unfortunate side effects to Cole's new-found powers, mostly dealing with the fact that his body is constantly channeling a powerful electrical field. He can generate, channel and control electricity, but not produce large amounts of it at one time, meaning he has to draw power from external sources to use his more advanced powers. Once Cole has used up all of his stored additional energy, he is only capable of using Lightning Bolt, Polarity Wall and Static Thrusters (these powers probally use the static electricity in the air, like how lightning is made). Most dangerously, should Cole become sufficiently submerged in water, he will short-circuit himself and cause injury to everyone in the water, including himself. If the water is deeper than Cole is tall, Cole will instantly be short-circuited and will pass out. Small amounts of water do not injure him, leaving him able to drink and wash (though he does short-circuit into puddles, killing anyone also standing in them, Cole is not injured to any noticeable degree). Alternate Timeline In Kessler's timeline, it is revealed that he developed his powers naturally (though the ray sphere existed in this timeline. meaning it possibly had the effect of causing people around the world to develop powers naturally. This explains how several enemy catalysts were created even though Cole was the only one at the blastpoint) and married Trish with Zeke as his best man. He had two twin girls, but they along with his wife were killed by the hands of The Beast. 'Trivia ' *Cole's original name was to be Dylan. This is shown in the Game Informer magazine with inFamous as its cover story. *Cole's last name, MacGrath, is coincidentally the same as the director of an unrelated movie called Infamous, Douglas McGrath. *Cole's powerset, abilities and how he received them are similar to, and likely inspired by, a variety of electricity-manipulators in comics and TV shows, including Spider-Man villain Electro, Surge of the New X-Men, Justice League of America member and raging stereotype Black Lightning, Static Shock, a superhero who got his powers from a large blast, similar to the Ray Sphere explosion, and the Sith in Star Wars' ability to shoot lighting from their hands. *A simple thing such as Cole running or jogging has about twenty animations, for the way human beings change balance when changing directions, to subtle motions in different body parts. *An early version of Cole in one of Sucker Punch's prototypes was called GearWolf. One of the key game mechanics in this was flirting. GearWolf had an infinite supply of razor-sharp bike gears from his motorcycle, which was another game mechanic. GearWolf also had a very similar design to Cole, in terms of the backpack and jacket. This prototype saw the game's first grapple sequence, and the gears were the prelude to the electric powers. *Cole's Good and Evil Karma versions are downloadable skins in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. 'Cole' is a character on the "Heroes" team, and 'Evil Cole' is a character on the "Villains" team. *If you look closely at Cole's backpack, it features a Sly Cooper symbol from the Sly Cooper series. *Cole's last name MacGrath is not a common name in the United States of America. If coming from Ireland to America, most of the MacGraths changed their name to McGrath for more American purposes, as did other Irish families (for example, MacDonald is McDonald now). *Cole's facial appearance strongley resembles Jason Statham. Perhaps, if a movie is made, he'll play Cole. *During his fight with Kessler, Kessler states that Cole's mother is ashamed of his job and tells others he is a teacher, while his father approves of Cole's relationship with Trish, considering her the daughter he never had. As Kessler already lived Cole's life, and has been watching over his alternate self all his life, it is likey he is correct. Category:Characters McGrath, Cole